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The future of the intersection in front of Westside Secondary School has been left in limbo.

Council is considering installing a set of traffic lights at Alder Street and Montgomery Boulevard for $125,000.

Not everybody on council agrees something needs to be done, while others would like to see a cheaper option considered. For instance, town staff estimates a signalized pedestrian crosswalk will cost about $80,000.

The Westside parent council first brought the request to council. Should council dismiss traffic lights, Westside parent Diana Taylor English urged them not to disregard all options, such as perhaps, even a crossing guard.

“(Students) asked us to be their voice,” Taylor English told council on Monday (Jan. 14). “All we knew was that we were going to ask for a safer intersection, whatever that might look like.”

What about town trails, you say?

The town’s Trailway Committee is ushering a laundry list of projects in front of council’s eyes for consideration, asking more than $655,000 of work be completed in 2013.

Some of the proposals include: budgeting $175,000 to build a trail near Amelia Street and Credit Meadows Drive, another $175,000 to resurface the Credit Meadows trail, and earmarking $95,000 to build a path leading to Orangeville’s community garden.

Every $275,000 lifted or added from the budget represents a one per cent tax increase or decrease — meaning the completion of all the projects proposed would increase the tax levy by 2.4 per cent.

On Monday (Jan. 14), however, council learned the town has a little more than $600,000 in development charges (DCs) available for trails. As a result, staff was asked to complete a list of proposed trail work for its consideration next week.

Coun. Sylvia Bradley said a crossing guard didn’t make financial sense in the long run, but argued a sidewalk would be a more warranted one-time expense.

Coun. Jeremy Williams was against placing a crossing guard in the area, as there is already one located nearby. He did support constructing a sidewalk though.

“Most people walk on sidewalks,” he said. “Someone has to pay for them.”

About an hour after council disregarded the crossing guard proposal, it shot the construction of a sidewalk was shot down as well.

A town only turns 150 once

The town is willing to spend about $69,000 on its 150th anniversary celebrations in 2013.

On Monday (Jan. 14), council gave staff the green light to budget $17,600 to hire an event co-ordinator.

The person hired for the position will help manage the various community events which will mark the town’s sesquicentennial celebration throughout the year.

Town officials have already designed a 150th anniversary logo, created a steering group to plan a long-year tribute to Orangeville’s history. The steering group will seek to help groups who normally put on annual events turn them into 150th celebration festivities.

The event co-ordinator money isn’t the only dough council has earmarked for the town’s birthday. Last year, council declared $52,000 from 2012 budget surplus would be used for its sesquicentennial.

Since the event co-ordinator position was a one-time expense, however, council decided to fund it through reserves, rather than the tax levy.

“We simply don’t have the staff to manage all the events that are going to take place,” said Mayor Rob Adams. “This is for this year only. It isn’t going to be a permanent thing.”

Yes indeedy, we’ll stop graffiti … with machinery

Orangeville council decided to use its property standards bylaw to force private landowners into cleaning acts of graffiti in a timely manner last year.

It also pledged to consider creating a graffiti removal fund during its 2013 budget deliberations. While a dollar amount hasn’t been determined, council learned town staff had done a little digging on Monday (Jan. 14).

There are several options to consider surrounding a graffiti removal machine, explained acting treasurer Karen Craggs. The town could purchase its own machine for municipal staff to use, or contract a private business to remove graffiti, she explained.

A report on the various options, as well as a cost breakdown, will be brought back to council next week.

“There is about three or four different options,” Craggs said. “It’d be probably best if we could report back to council with the different options.”

While that was all fine and dandy, Deputy Mayor Warren Maycock was more interested in making sure the town’s current method of cleaning graffiti found on municipal property is considered as an option as well.

“When graffiti appears on town buildings for many years, we’ve got rid of it. Hopefully, as part of the report, we’ll hear what we’ve traditionally done,” he said, “Not just a report that would include additional new methods.”